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User blog:PersephoneQuarius/Beginner's Guide to Astrology
Following the Wierd talk, I thought I'd make a little summary for people interested in getting into Astrology asap. What is Astrology? Astrology is the study of the effects the positions and patterns of the sun, moon and planets in our solar system have on events that occur on Earth. Astrology today is largely associated with 'horoscopes' which are generally weekly suggestions of the future based on the month you were born. This is NOT true astrology. Magazine Astrology is a commercialisation of astrology that has been watered down to the point where it has almost no real credibility. Sun Sign Astrology People are far more complex and varied than simply the month they were born in. This is known as 'Sun sign astrology', and only looks at the position of the Sun at the time of your birth. But, to start with, neglects the fact that the ~30 days of that month involve the Moon being in different positions. Your 'Moon Sign' As we know from the tides, the relative position of the Sun and Moon has enormous effects on the planet, so why would we ignore it for something as sensitive and refined as human personality? Depending on the time of month you were born, the Moon was in one of the 12 constellations of the Zodiac. Just like the tides are pulled in different directions by the sun and moon when apart or together, our personality is pulled between our Values (Sun sign) and our Emotional Needs (Moon sign). Rising Signs (Ascendants) On top of this, depending on what hour of the day you were born, the first 12 hours of your life had a particular constellation of the Zodiac rise in the sky and fall: this is known as your 'rising sign' or 'Ascendant'. The rising sign describes your personality as other people perceive it. It is the persona you project to the world. The Full Picture The positions of the other planets all have an effect on your personality. For myself, when I was born on March 29, 1990: the Sun was in Aries, the Moon was in Taurus, Mercury was in Aries, Mars and Venus was in Aquarius and at the moment I was born the constellation Leo was rising on the horizon. Using the picture on the right, I would describe myself as: "I am AN INITIATOR, but my emotions are ENDURING. I think in a DIRECT way, but express my energy in a COMBATIVE way. In love, I seek UNDERSTANDING, I take on the role of THE PROTECTOR." This is just one particular writers summary of these signs that I found on Google, but already as I read this, the summary describes me very well. For you to see how your own summary looks, you'll need to know the positions of your own planets at the time of your birth. Finding your Birth Chart There are many, many great websites to calculate your birth chart, and all will present it in different ways and give you different perspectives on the meaning of all the postions of the planets, and the angles/patterns they make with each other. The site I most reccommend is Astromatrix.org. If you follow this link, you can access a page to enter your birth details, including the place and time (if you know it, otherwise put 12:00 as a rough guess for now). Be sure to use 24-hr time, meaning if you were born at 10:30pm, write 22:30. Once you calculate your chart, you can scroll down to a screen like the one below: Looking at Your Chart Once you have your chart, you can learn the position of each planet by hovering your mouse over each item in the Name" column. In the image above, the mouse is hovered over the "ASC" row, which shows that my Ascendant (or 'rising sign') is Leo (or 'Leo Rising'). You can see from the first two rows that my Sun is in Aries (♈) and my moon is in Taurus (♉). You might now want to write down your Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars and Ascendant/Rising signs and complete the blurb in the previous section: "I am _____, but my emotions are ______. I think in a ______ way, but express my energy in a ______ way. In love, I seek ______, I take on the role of ______." See how well this blurb resonates with you, and perhaps compare it to mine and see if you feel there is a significant accuracy to your own blurb compared to mine (which is essentially random from your perspective). I believe you'll find that yours resonates much more strongly and perhaps you can leave a comment on the facebook post with your blurb summary and how you feel about it. :) Other Links: Primal Astrology (Chinese Zodiac + Sun Sign): For me personally, the turning point in my skepticism against astrology came when my best friend Sam showed me the website PrimalAstrology.com which combines your Sun sign with your Chinese Zodiac year (e.g. Year of the Rat, Snake, etc). I immediately resonated strongly with my page, and then started checking the descriptions for family and friends and found them to fit astronishingly well. AstroTheme (Celebrity Astrology): AstroTheme is my favourite site in terms of its layout and options. It compiles a database of celebrities' birth charts for you to look at and apply your understanding of Astrology to recognisable personalities and see for yourself how accurate astrology is. It also lets you save as many birth charts as you want and you can find celebrities with similar charts to yours and see whether you feel like you are similar in personality. Others: The C*I*A (Cosmic Intelligence Agency) is a brilliant and exceptionally ambitious organisation with the goal of spreading knowledge of Astrology worldwide, it started in Melbourne in 2005 and has since grown to be the largest Astrological community in the world. If you are really into learning more, I highly reccomend becoming a member (which I recently did). CafeAstrology is great for detail and depth. DarkStar Astrology is great for alternative views from the classical style, using stars and asteroids much more in their predictions and focussing much more on the darker aspects of astrology. Autism and Aspergers: If you were particularly interested in the part of the talk discussing Asperger's as a culturally-influenced imbalance between IQ and EQ, I have a page I am working on, but this whole wiki is a complete mess at the moment, so I recommend the /r/Aspergers subreddit and the WikiBook of Marc Segar's Autistic Survival Guide, which summarised the experience of Aspergers in the best way I had ever heard it: : "''Autistic people have to understand '''scientifically' what non-autistic people learn instinctively." This is the exact reason why I felt the need to find a 'science of socialising' to help build my IQ using scientific methods. This is exactly what I think Astrology is, and I believe that Astrology could help millions of Autism Spectrum people find and enhance their own EQ. Going Deeper So, now if you're feeling fairly open-minded and starting to see the merits of astrology, you'll want to look deeper. This is where AstroMatrix.org really shines, and the reason I reccomended it over sites with easier user-interfaces (like AstroTheme.com or cafeastrology.com, both great sites). While many sites offer great descriptions of separate elements of your chart, AstroMatrix.org is (in my opinion) the most advanced in terms of the way it analyses the angles the planets make ("Aspects") and uses these to build a full personality profile that is truly unique to you and (I have found) extremely accurate. You can navigate through each section separately and find a summary of what your birth chart says about you in different elements of your life. Teaching Yourself Everything above has given you enough access to be told a huge amount about what your chart says about your personality (I am still reading through my AstroMatrix summaries, because I only found it recently and it has so much to say). However, if you're interested in really being able to understand Astrology yourself, and use it in everyday life to help understand not only your personality, but apply the concepts to understanding other people (increasing your emotional intelligence), then you will want to learn more. The first step, is understanding the Zodiac. Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. These 12 signs divide the orbital plane of the solar system into 12 sections of 30o each. These constellations are not chosen because they look especially like the animals and objects they are depicted as in art, but rather they are chosen because they form a co-ordinate system for the planets. Just like North-South-East-West, but with 12 sections rather than 4. Sagittarius points in the direction of the centre of the Milky Way galaxy, so could be considered like the 'south', while Gemini points away from the centre and could be considered like the 'north'. The solar system is in orbit around the Milky Way's centre, just like the Earth is in orbit around the sun. Gravity creates slopes in space-time and hence the entire solar system feels a slope towards sagittarius, and experiences different density of dark matter between Pisces and Virgo, due to there being an angle between our solar system's plane and the plane of the galaxy. Don't worry about understanding dark matter or space-time, my only point is that our orbits live in a very complex environment, which means that when planets enter different sectors of the Zodiac (different signs) they start to give off different energies, based on this environment. The ancient astrologers of Greece decided to divide these changes into 12 distinct parts, each with different properties: the Zodiac. Elements Planets positioned in the direction of: Aries, Leo or Sagittarius they tend to give off lots of active, directed energy, much like fire, light or lightning. Hence, these are called 'fire signs'. Capricorn, Taurus or Virgo tend to give very stable energies, much like earth, metal or dust. Hence, these are called 'earth signs'. Libra, Aquarius or Gemini tend to give active, connective energies, much like air, gas or vapour. Hence, these are called 'air signs'. Cancer, Scorpio or Pisces tend to give flowing, connective energies, much like water. Hence, these are called 'water signs'. I like to remember these by a few mnemonics: *'Fire': ALS - "A''' 'L'ively 'S'park" *'''Earth: CTV - "C'omplete '''T'unnel 'V'ision" *'''Air: LAG - "Light A'iry '''G'ems" *'''Water: CSP - "C'ool '''S'prings & 'P'onds" Qualities Within each element, there are three signs. These signs are different due to the way the element's energy is directed: its 'quality'. The three qualities are '''Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable. Planets positioned in the direction of: Aries, Cancer, Libra or Capricorn tend to direct their element's energy forward into growth and creation and are called 'cardinal signs'. When the sun is in a cardinal sign, it is the beginning of a new season. These signs are 'the initiators'. Leo, Taurus, Aquarius or Scorpio tend to express their element's energy in a more consistent, enduring way and are called 'fixed signs'. When the sun is in a fixed sign, it is the middle of a season and its peak. These signs are 'the continuers'. Sagittarius, Virgo, Gemini or Pisces tend to be more fluid and changeable with the energy of their element, and are called 'mutable signs'. When the sun is in a mutable sign, it is the end of a season and the planet is preparing itself for the next change. These signs are 'the adapters'. Applying This to Your Chart So now you can look at your chart, and perhaps to start you could look at the three most important signs: your sun sign, your moon sign and ascendant (SMA). Out of these three, are you 'more cardinal', 'more fixed' or 'more mutable'? My SMA is Aries-Taurus-Leo (Cardinal, Fixed, Fixed). So I have a lot of 'fixed energy' in my chart, and not much 'mutable' energy. Cardinal energy is good for people who want to lead, or make decisions or initiate changes (but perhaps a bit headstrong). Fixed energy is good for people who value stability and longevity (but perhaps a bit too routine). Mutable energy is good for people who like to be easy-going and 'go with the flow' (but perhaps indecisive). Similarly, you can spread this out a bit and include your Mercury (thoughts) and other planets and ask which elements stand out and which are missing. AstroLibrary.org has a great link for calculating this balance, but the 'extra points' are a bit complicated for beginner's, so you might want to skip that. Really Going the Distance If you really find yourself wanting to get deeper and deeper, then I'm keen to chat directly. I am still learning and look forward to finishing my doctorate so I can focus on astrology full time. For now, I highly recommend the C*I*A as a resource for learners. One day, I hope to offer direct tutoring to anyone excited and passionate about learning and perhaps start a whole community of tutors who can help spread these techniques to the world. If this sounds like you, then feel free to contact me via Wierd. :) Category:Blog posts Category:Astrology Category:Natal Astrology